☆ ☆ ☆
The
Black Swan (1942) – H. King
Although it won an Oscar for best color
cinematography, The Black Swan is a rather lacklustre swashbuckler. Perhaps the genre was worn out after the
1930s and the era of Errol Flynn and all those Alexandre Dumas stories. Indeed, this film shares strong similarities
with Flynn’s Captain Blood (1935) which is much better. Tyrone Power is good here, but although he
was known for adventure films, I liked him better in later darker films such as
The Razor’s Edge (1946) or Nightmare Alley (1947). Also, there are some funny character turns
here: Laird Cregar as a mountainous
Captain Morgan (yes, of the rum) and George Sanders unrecognizable in a wild
red hair and beard as Captain Billy Leach.
Maureen O’Hara is fine as Powers’ love interest but her scenes are
rather static. All told, this is fine Saturday
afternoon fare but look to the earlier decade for the good stuff.
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